The hand-held radio industry is constantly challenged in the market place for high audio quality mobile devices. A high audio quality product is characterized as producing crisp sound at a sufficiently high volume. Fleet service workforces generally demand high audio quality radios having speakerphone capabilities. In a high-audio speakerphone radio, a high audio speaker can project sound out of the speakerphone to the user. A high audio speaker generally replaces the function of the earpiece that is normally positioned against the user's ear. The high audio speakerphones allow a user to engage in a voice conversation without having to hold the radio to the ear.
The fleet service workforces generally work in adverse environments where noise can degrade the quality of the listening experience. That is, when combined with noise, the projected audio is not as clear to the user. The audio may sound muffled due to the addition of the unwanted noise. Moreover, with the demand to make products smaller and with more features, the size of the radios and the speakers are reduced. Furthermore, the display and keypad generally occupy a large surface area on the radio. Consequently, there is little room to place a high audio speaker except generally on a back side of the phone. In such regard, during use, a user that is exposed to the front side of the radio while viewing the display or interfacing with the keypad will not receive audio directly from the speaker on the back side. The sound must travel around the radio for the user to hear, which can affect the quality of the sound. This leads to a degradation in audio quality since some portions of the sound signal are suppressed.